


Bleeding Red and Yellow

by menodoranlights (helianskies)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Civil War, Historical Hetalia, Historical References, Insomnia, Mentioned Portugal (Hetalia), Pain, Post-Betrayal, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23384449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helianskies/pseuds/menodoranlights
Summary: Spain is fresh out of a civil war. How is he holding up? The answer is not all that surprising.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	Bleeding Red and Yellow

Spain can't sleep. He hasn't slept properly for nearly three years, but it doesn't make a difference; each night feels worse than the previous and he can't seem to change it. So all he can do is stare at the wall, stare through the dark... The sun would rise in a few hours and bring with it some warm light. Spain wasn't sure he'd be able to feel it. _Warmth_. There was nothing warming about waking up, these days.

It is the 3rd of April. The early hours of a Monday morning are his only company, for now. It will not be so much a blue Monday as it will be red and yellow; yellow with the rising sun and golden victory still being celebrated in the streets, and red with the dried blood of Spaniards and foreigners alike layered thick over his land. Rain will not wash any of it away so easily - the blood, the corpses, the memories...

A brief nausea threatens to rise in his throat but he swallows it down along with the minuscule particles of pride still lingering in his being.

He wonders, staring at nothing, if this is how all of the other nations had felt after enduring the horrors of their own people turning against themselves and destroying everything around them in the meantime. _Sick, restless, self-loathing_. Did they all feel this too?

But no, how could they, he counters himself, when this war had been far from _civil_ in all senses of the word?

Nearly three years ago, he had begged - ready to get down on his knees - for his neighbours, friends and allies to help him. To stop the madness before it happened. To protect his people, because he was not strong enough to do so on his own.

Nearly three weeks ago, he had begged - on the floor, bleeding, crying, _screaming_ \- for the pain to end. For them to stop the madness that they had provoked. For them to spare his people and take his life instead of theirs, _please, you can't, I-I beg of you—_!

Spain shifts at the memory. The three years' worth of pain has not yet fully subsided. He still feels aches and bruises and interal damage from the conflict, but there is no use dwelling on it. He knows this. His boss tries to console him and assure him that it is all for the best - that it will all be worth it in the end - and what choice does he have but to listen? If he doesn't, they will kill him to make a point _(we are in control now,_ understand?), and even though death is something so very _tempting_ , he knows he will only wake up again to the same nightmare.

He closes his eyes and rolls onto his back. He tries to think back to times before all of this, when he was happy and strong and respected, a nation that knew no limits nor challenges, a man to be adored as much as he was revered... It wasn't that long ago. _It was all so, so wonderful_.

They say they will make him feel like this again. Maybe they are right. Maybe they are not.

Spain will not know the answer for sure for a few years (and then some, for good measure). All he knows right now is that he needs some rest, maybe a little morphine to numb the pain, and a chat with his brother. Perhaps, he contemplates as he settles into the sheets and steadies his breathing, Portugal has some advice for him. It is wiser than turning to his counterparts in Italy and Germany.

The four of _them_ , he decide, will be too hard to look in the eye for some time, for fear of seeing no remorse nor shame there for what they have done to him.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written purely for my obsession with the Spanish Civil War as an important part of history that seldom gets taught, and the irresistible urge to write something short and simple. 
> 
> Quick Facts:  
> • the SCW is classified as a civil war for staying in Spain, but it ultimately saw the involvement of Germany, Italy, Portugal, the USSR, Mexico and International Brigades (Reds/Communists) from all over the world fighting on the mainland.  
> • Britain and (a coerced) France formed the Non-Intervention Treaty, consisting of 27 nations, all agreeing upon an embargo against Spain to ensure the war stayed in its borders. Yes, Germany, Italy and Russia all signed this. And yes, Germany, Italy and Russia all proceeded to ignore it.  
> • the war was declared over on April 1st 1939, 2 years, 8 months, 2 weeks and a day after it was declared on July 17th 1936.  
> • the war was between the Republicans (leftists) and Nationalists (fascists), which the latter won, leading to the 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. He died in 1975, after which, Spain steadily transitioned back to a democracy.
> 
> Sorry if this isn't brilliant, it's just gone midnight and the urge couldn't be fought in spite of my tiredness! I hope you enjoyed? More like this to come in the future :p


End file.
